The major indexes head into Friday protecting slim gains in what could be a third straight weekly advance. The S&P 500 pushed to a new high Thursday. The Dow was within a fraction of its September high, while the Nasdaq remained almost 2% below its high mark from September.

In stocks, Morgan Stanley (MS) kicked up 7% in premarket action. The former investment bank reported fourth-quarter earnings from continuing operations down 38%, slightly better than the 39% drop projected by analysts. Revenue rose 23% to $7 billion, just below analyst consensus views. Chief executive James Gorman told CNBC the company's latest round of 1,600 layoffs — bringing total job cuts to 6,000 jobs in the past year — was the last of the company's plans to downsize its payroll.

Morgan Stanley shares have been in an uptrend since July, and ended Thursday poised just below the stock's March high.

General Electric (GE) bench-pressed a 4% gain before the open, after reporting adjusted Q4 earnings growth of 19%, better than consensus estimates for a 16% gain. Revenue stepped up 3.6% to $39.33 billion, also above forecasts. The company's backlog of orders also surprised analysts, rising nearly 4% quarter-over-quarter, to $210 billion.

The company said markets in developed countries continued to lag, but sales continued growing to China and energy-rich countries outside the U.S. GE shares have been consolidating since October, climbing gradually off a Nov. 16 low and finding steady 10-week support since Jan. 10.

On the downside, consumer credit lender Capital One Financial (COF) folded 7% after its Q4 report late Thursday. The McLean, Va.-based company said diluted Q4 earnings rose 60% to $1.42 per share, well short of analyst projections. Revenue gained 36% to $6.2 billion, also below views. Management gave a no-growth outlook for 2013 revenue. Janney Capital Markets downgraded the stock to neutral from buy.

Europe's major indexes were under pressure, tightly mixed, as they crossed into afternoon trade. All were tracking toward flat to modest gains for the week.

The euro rose, the yen slipped vs. the dollar. Commodities ticked lower, although both gold and oil were steering toward gains nearing 2% for the week. Natural gas traded 5.7% above last Friday's close and silver futures were up 4.4% on the week.

The only major economic release on the calendar looked to be the University of Michigan's January consumer sentiment index, due out at 9:55 a.m. EST.

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Select market data is provided by Interactive Data Corp. Real Time Services. Price and Volume data is delayed 20 minutes unless otherwise noted, is believed accurate but is not warranted or guaranteed by Interactive Data Corp. Real Time Services and is subject to Interactive Data Corp. Real Time Services terms. All times are Eastern United States. *Reflects real-time index prices.